2011-11-25 - If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
It's about 8:00 in the evening, and it's dark outside. A bit of snow is scattered on the sidewalks outside, dirty from those walking to and fro about the place. The only thing on the roads are the sides and it's brown slush. Inside the Gym it is a little warm because of not only the heater but the number of boxers that are tying up their training. Grant is currenly in the ring with one, wearing flat square pads and having his pupil hit at them rapidly and practice his aim and power. He yells out orders and corrections, and keeps a rythum going. In a different corner of the gym, Jesse is taking out whatever's bothering her...not that anything is, but the girl has some aggression...on one of Ted's punching bags. Of course, that's exactly what punching bags are for. This one, though, is starting to look a little...well used. And into the gym walked a woman who hasn't been there for a while. Diana was dressed in a long jacket that was appropreate for the weather, and a pair of dark-tinted glasses that didn't go well with the dark hour. She takes a few steps into the gym before she reaches up to take her glasses off, a bit of a smile coming to her features as she simply crossed her arms and waited for Ted to not be busy. Ah, nighttime...just one of the many times of day in which 42 is hungry. Actually...he's pretty much hungry all the time. So, why would he come to a gym when he's hungry? Well...he got food here before, of course. And hey, if they don't have pizza again, they have all those funny metal lifting things and big bags and stuff, and those are probably edible. So, the rather oddly-dressed youth arrives at Grant's Gym, opening the door and stepping inside a few moments after Diana. He's not really dressed for the cold, but it doesn't appear to be bothering him at all. Spotting the number of people around, he goes wide-eyed, staring around at all the activity going on in a fair amount of confusion. Grant continues to work the young man through the steps till sweat drips down the side of his face. And afterwards, the flat mitt goes swinging and nails the guy upside the head, "I said to keep your hands up!" He growls, "Practice posture and use a punching bag," he then calls over to another student, "Tod! Knock Bill aside the head each time he forgets to defend himself!" He then moves to get out of the ring between the ropes. He moves to yank off the flat mitts and grins at Diana, "Hey there lady, been a while." He nods toward Jesse in the corner, "Jesse is here too, but she looks a little strung tight today. Not sure I want to get close or not," he jests. Grant may not notice the kid just yet with Diana in front of his eyes, but one of the other pupils do. The guy stops jumping rope and asks, "Hey kid," picking up Grant's way of talking, though he only appears to be about seventeen or so himself. "Anything we can do for you?" Jesse Chambers lets her fists fall. "I'm not strung tight, Ted...NOW." Yeah, she took it all out on the punching bag. She's not about to take it out on anything or anyone she can actually hurt. The blonde turns and then offers Diana a smile. Diana smiles back at Ted and gives a slight raise of her hands. "What can I say, Ted. I have been busy. I'm glad to be back though..." She looks over at Jesse and gives a smile and a nod. "I noticed you seemed to be taking a lot of... aggression out there. I wasn't going to interfere." She knows better then to do that. "So hows things been going here? Still holding things together, I see..." She actually did notice the young man that came in behind her, but like Grant, she didn't say anything to him yet. Not like she knew who he was or anything. Project 42 blinks a little, cocking his head as he looks towards the teen speaking to him. He thinks for a few moments, and then nods rapidly, stepping over towards the teen and digging in a pocket to produce a few scraps of paper and a pencil. He scribbles on the paper, and holds the resulting message (in horrible handwriting) out for the man to read: "42 hungry." "Oh, fine enough. Got a new gym user...," that liked to fight in her swimsuit and almost gave him a nosebleed, but hey, Grant doesn't mention that! "Priss is her name, someone I think you might really enjoy sparring against Diana. She seems to have the martial know-how and physical abilities to give you a good sweat...but I've only observed her," he does warn about his estimates. But then toward Jesse, "Well, if you ever need to talk kid, you know where my door is." The kid scratches his head a bit and then looks at what 42 writes. "Huh? 42 hungry? Why did you write a number?" But then the kid yells out, "Hey, Grant! There is some mute kid that is coming for charity I think! See, rumors are spreading that you are really a big teddy bear!" Grant yells at his pupil, "Shut up! Before I punch the living daylights out of you! Jump rope for ten more minutes punk!" And he finally notices Project 42 and frowns. "What the hell?" So many homeless kids, he already has 2 living with him and a 3rd he finally sent out the door to live on his own....he couldn't handle him anymore. Jesse Chambers snorts a bit, wandering over. "Oh...great. I've met this kid. If you don't feed him he'll start chowing down on the weight kit." She's...not joking. "Priss?" Diana repeats the name. It's a new one to her (and honestly, a lot of the names she has heard are strange to her...) "I would very much like to meet this woman sometime." She smiles pleasently enough before the 'teddy bear' comment is thrown at Grant. Diana can't help but snicker at that. "Another stray seems to have adopted you, Ted. Err... Seriously?" That last question was to Jesse and her comment about 42 eating the weight kit... Project 42 is in fact already eyeing the jump rope the teen who greeted him is holding in a manner that strongly suggests he thinks it might be a particularly big piece of pasta and is interested in finding out if he is correct. Fortunately, Ted's yelling distracts him from actually making an attempt, and he blinks, looking over at the man and then walking over towards him. He holds up the note again, smiling cheerfully, and then scribbles on it some more, amending: "42 very hungry." "Ya, her nickname. Priscilla is her real one," Grant informs, that is what is on her paperwork for membership anyway. "Sure, just stop in more often," he advises Diana. "And I damn well hope not!" He scoffs at Jesse's words, hoping they aren't true anyway. "Why does he come here for food anyway?" This is a grumble beneath his voice, "Going to be broke in no-time. I don't normally feed strays...did you start this Jesse?" He crosses his arms over his chest as he looks at Jesse with a half-hearted glare. He isn't really made at Jesse, he is just putting up an act. "You do seem to know the kid." Grant scowls down at the kid, "This isn't some damn soup kitchen kid. Where are your folks? Foster parents? Something?" The ntoe thing doesn't shock him at all really, hell, he lives with CASS, what do you think? "He was trying to eat a fire escape," Jesse excuses, cheerfully. "And I could hardly take him home." Have you met her mother? She might as well have wings and breathe fire some days. Diana just arches her eyebrows a bit at the entire situation. "Priscilla. Got it. I'll endeavor to be around here more often. A fire escape you say?" She rubs the back of her head at that. "Talk about being seriously hungry..." She nudges Ted in the ribs slightly. "Come on now, 'Teddy Bear', Im sure you could spare the boy something to eat." Playful jibbing aside, Diana could probably sympathize ever so slightly with Jesse and her relationship with her mother. Hippolyta wasn't always the easiest person in the world to please... Project 42 looks a little confusedly at Jesse, scratching his head, but shrugs a bit and returns his attention to Ted. The questions about his parents get him to shake his head rapidly, but then he just points at the paper again. He turns to Diana, and nodnods, scribbling on the paper again and revealing a crude stick figure drawing that looks rather like a person pulling off a rung of a ladder and stuffing it in his mouth. He flashes a cheerful grin again. Actually, Grant has...but she was drop dead, eat your face out, gorgeous then..so if she acted like a dragon then, he didn't notice. "You don't want a little brother?" He rubs the back of his neck. If they had a place like Xavier's School...but that place was blown up to nothing. They really need a place for these 'special' strays. He is too deeply involved in the Meta community to be surprised that this kid tried to literally eat a fire escape...alright, that's a lie....he twitched. "I don't want to be this kid's dentist, that's for sure." He might eat the guy's fingers! He grunts at the elbow from Diana. "Why me?! "You want a stray Diana?" Yes, Grant is trying to get rid of the kid already. "Surely you want to feed him, got some hidden motherly urges inside you?" Please don't kill Grant. "See, he wants a pretty lady to feed him. He likes you Diana." Jesse Chambers shakes her head. "Ted does rather have enough on his plate in terms of waifs and strays." It is a shame Xavier's got blown up at all kinds of levels, including this one. The destruction of Xavier's was indeed a shame, and a great tragedy that should have never happened. But, Diana couldn't turn back the hands of time, so she could only try and deal with the events of the present and the future. "Why you?" Di gives Ted a bit of a look as she crosses her arms. "And what, exactly am I going to feed him? And from where? I have been gone a while, Ted, and the apartment I called home is no longer mine..." Yeah, you leave for a few months and they end up giving your apartment away to someone else... The nerve of them! "Besides, he seems to have his attention set more on you." It wasn't that Diana wouldn't give the kid some food... but she just didn't have any! That kind of precludes giving some away... Project 42 looks around at each of the others in turn, looking rather confused now. He clearly isn't quite able to follow the conversation, and so, losing interest, he steps away from the group a little, walking over to watch one of the guys working out with a punching bag. He stares in curiosity for a few moments, then starts mimicking the routine--not very well, but he's doing at least a reasonable approximation of some punches, anyway. And at least he hasn't eaten the bag yet. Grant groans, "Shit, I'll feed him. But I'm not keeping him! I don't have room, honest...I don't want someone living in my living room again," he grumbles. "And I can't store him at you know where," he means headquarters, which Diana does have a place to stay there even if she lost her apartment. Unless she wants company...then Grant will typically get stuck with the couch. He's not that lucky! He goes stopping toward the stairs as he says to Jesse, "Make sure he doesn't eat anything!" He grumbles again. "First Wilde was going to eat me out of house and home, and now some red cap kid," the name of a type of Fae that can eat anything and everything. Jesse Chambers lifts her hands. A 'what else could I have DONE gesture'. He was bidding fair to eat half the city...and at least she got him eating food, not fire escapes, bumpers, tires... Well, thats a step in the right direction... Diana watches Ted stomp off, a slight shake of her head given. She knew he really didn't mean it. Though admitedly, the question of what should be done with the boy still hung over everything. What was she to do though? "Always such a stubborn male..." She chuckles before looking back at Jesse, and then over to 42, watching him shadow box for a moment or two. Project 42 continues his boxing for a few moments, and then pauses, watching Ted go with a little curiosity, and then looking over at Jesse and Diana. He scribbles on the pad, then points to the boxer working with the bag as he shows the message: "Why?" Grant has disappeared from view as he headed upstairs, likely to make a sandwich or use his microwave or something. "Practice. For defending yourself or competing." It's so much easier, of course, to work on one's actual form while not being hit back. As the question is asked, Diana looks at Jesse again as she gives her answer, and then adds her own. "And also for improving yourself. To strive to become better." That of course is not the only way of improving youself, but it certainly didn't hurt either. Project 42 blinks a little, and then nods, writing: "Praktis. More good." He mimics the punching a bit more, and frowns. He turns back to the two of them, and scribbles quickly: "Praktis is test? 42 no like test." He looks rather mopey, writing: "Test hurt." Grant is soon coming downstairs, and he has a TV tray under one arm and is carrying a steaming TV Dinner. He is also carrying a bottle of cold water and plastic ware. He sets the things up in front of a bench and looks over at 42. He points to the bench, "Sit and eat kid. May not be great, but got to be better than a fire escape ladder. That paint likely has lead in it." The TV Dinner is salisbury steak with gravey, hot pudding, and corn. Jesse Chambers shakes her head. "Practice is doing something over again until you get it right." She yawns and stretches. "I'm going to at least think about showering. "No.. Nobody is going to test you here." Diana confirms Jesse's words as Ted comes downstairs with the food. She simply motions 42 toward it. "Make sure you thank him." She adds with a gesture to Grant. Project 42 nods a little at Jesse and Diana, seeming to at least get the general idea, and then has his attention stolen by Ted. He pumps his arms in the air, running over to the bench and snatching up the whole tray, holding it before himself. He looks about to do something (and those very close might catch sight of a small part of his face seeming to 'bubble' for just a moment), but stops, clearly thinking, and shakes his head. Instead, he just grabs a handful of steak and crams that into his mouth, swallowing it whole without even chewing. Grant watches Jesse soon excuse herself to take off, and turns to look at the kid. "Well...wonder if he would stay at a police station until they got him into foster care or something? Think he is a runaway Diana?" He frowns thoughtfully. Yes, he talks about 42 as if he isn't there in a way like adults often have a habit of doing, but then shakes his head. "Ugh...you do understand English at least, don't you kid? Since you write it? You aren't Deaf either, just Mute? Least, are you mute, or just don't like talking?" Diana watches 42 start to eat with a seemingly ravenous abandon. "Perhaps a runaway... Though a comment he wrote makes me think he was experimented on in some way..." A mix of concern and pity crosses the Amazons face for a very brief moment. "Though who might have done such a thing is beyond me... I honestly don't think he can talk, Ted." Project 42 frowns at Ted, continuing eating his meal with his hands rather than using the plasticware. He does at least take a moment to scribble: "42 no talk." He opens his mouth, looking like he's trying to make noise, but nothing comes out. Back to eating, and that TV dinner is done fast. A moment passes, and he peers at the tray, then shrugs and takes a bite out of that too. "Who knows, the government does messed up things, and there are supervillains Diana. Bad things happen." The expression on Grant's face isn't pretty though, he looks pissed off too. BUt he takes a deep breath, "But...he's eatting with his hands, took me forever to teach Wilde to use silverware....and I still can't get Cass to have a full conversation...I'm not father material." He knows that now. "I can't handle another...individual with special needs." Grant grumbles, "Great, mute, least he knows English." Be thankful for the little things. He sighs, "Saves the dump some trash anyway, hopefully it doesn't give him the craps." That's lovely Grant. Lovely indeed... Diana looks a bit lost on this situation. She rubs the back of her head again and sighs a bit. "The government does do some very messed up things... And as for 'supervillains'..." She just shakes her head, momentarily marveling at how little mankind seems to have evolved when it comes to doing harm to itself. "Ted, I wish I could give you some advice here... But I can't. I don't know where to begin with this one..." Project 42 finishes off devouring the tray, and smiles, clapping his hands a little. He picks up the plasticware, frowning and peering at it. He tosses the fork and spoon into his mouth one at a time, but pauses on the knife, considering it for a bit. Then he tries to write with it. Failing that, he picks up his pencil again and scribbles a note, showing Ted the knife and the note at the same time: "No work. Eat?" "Neither do I...I'm loss with Cass...in some ways, she is still a child, in others she is my equal." He sighs, "Either way, she's my partner." And he will do what he can to provide her needs. "And that's not even including when Sharon visits, the cat girl." Grant just stares at 42 for a bit, "Ah, whatever, it's plastic, eat it if you want. But you aren't eating my metal silverware, I'll smack you senseless," he warns with a growl. "I can't believe what your stomach can eat, it's terrifying." Grant looks over at Diana, still lost. "Where is Steve right now? Wonder if we could dump the kid on him or Helena?" He sighs....so tempting, but he doubts they could take him in either. He's way too issued! "I haven't seen Steve since I came back. Not yet anyway." Diana admits. "We need to have some kind of safe place for this sort of thing." How does one go about setting that sort of thing up though? She inwardly sighed... Life was so much simpler back home. She stifles a yawn as she realizes that the trip back was more draining then she would admit. "Ted, I really need to get some sleep... I wanted to drop by and say hi first though... Hopefully, you can help me catch up with what has been going on recently..." Project 42 pumps his arms in the air, and stuffs the knife down his gullet too. He picks up the bottle of water, but when Ted says 'terrifying,' he stops, looking over at Ted and looking upset. He hangs his head, setting the bottle back down. Ask Batman a.k.a. Bruce Wayne sponsor it? Umm...maybe not, he's already sponsoring the JSA. Grant nods, "Sure thing. Need to stay at my place, or able to get to you know what?" Like, HQ where there are rooms. He then looks at the kid, "Well, I can at least if he will go to the cops and let them investigate the matter and such...I got a contact with the cops that can help us out and keep me posted." Grant leans forward and removes the cap from the bottle, "You drink it the water inside it, you don't eat it," he explains with surprising patience. He may have used the term terrifying, but there is no real sight of fear in his face, body language, or eyes. No, just sadness at 42 being alone and so obviously lost and clueless. "I can get back, yes... Thank you though." Diana, as always, never took an invitation from Ted to stay at his place as anything else besides a simple offer to keep a roof over her head when she needed it. (Poor naive woman... When will she learn?) "I'll catch up with you soon, alright?" she starts heading towards the way out, pausing at the boy. She gives him a reassuring smile and tries to pat him on his head (if he allows her.) "It will be alright, okay?" Project 42 looks at Grant, watching him remove the cap, and nods a little. He picks up the paper and pencil again, scribbling on it: "42 not scary. 42 good." He takes the bottle, frowning, and lifts it up, tipping it upside down over his face. Unfortunately, it isn't quite positioned right, and he gets a stream of water in the eye first. Startled, he gives a soundless 'yelp' and nearly drops the bottle, but quickly gets it repositioned and gets some in his mouth. A pause, and he thinks hard, then tries again, putting the bottle in his mouth first before turning it upside down. That works better, and he grins at Ted happily. He blinks a bit as Diana pats him on the head, and gives her a big smile in reply, nodding. Ironically, Grant meant it as that, because he knows he doesn't have a chance in hell. He just gives admiring glances when Diana isn't looking. Grant moves quickly to catch the bottle and curses. He should have expected this, it's like Catseye, like someone threw a switch in their heads and made them...ugh...no, Grant will not be meant to them, it's not his fault! But it cements him, Grant can't deal with another one. He's scattered brained as is from just two...and when he had Wilde, it was just two months. He then shows Project 42, "Like this," and takes a drink of the bottle before holding it out to him to try. "i'll get you a towel to dry with and then we are going to the police station." He nods toward Diana, "Take care then, I'm going to get apparently '42' to the station." Project 42 nods, taking a sip--more naturally this time. See, he can get it! It just takes a little while! As Diana leaves, and Ted talks about the police, he frowns a little and regards Ted uncertainly. Finally, he scribbles: "Po Leese?" Grant nods, "Yes, the police," and he motions for the pencil so he can write it down with the proper spelling. "They are good people, heroes really. They help people. If they cannot find your parents, they will find some nice folks for you to stay with. And you will be able to have regular food, and go to school, and make friends." He will make sure his Detective friend knows the kid is Meta, so he can make sure he is properly tended to, and he will check on the kid...cause unless his parents are found, he would be placed locally, so not a huge deal to check up on him with a cop friend keeping track of things. Project 42 frowns a little at the explanation, and finally shakes his head rapidly. "Parents hurt 42. Test. Fire. Burn. Hurt." he writes. "42 want free." He starts to walk towards the door. Grant orders one of the students of the gym to watch it and follows 42. "I understand, but there are other options. You can get new parents to help you. Don't you want to go to school and make friends? To get regular meals so you don't have to eat plastic?" Grant is trying for practical. "I'll introduce you to my friend and he can better explain it." He hopes. Project 42 slows, coming to a stop, and frowns at Grant. He watches him for a little bit, and finally writes something again. "No lab? No test? 42 no like test." A pause. "42 free? 42 go wear want?" "No, 42 needs a respectable life, the life of a normal teenager before 42 can grow into a man and make decisions all by himself," Grant says. "You can go where ever you want when you are old enough to get a job, and earn money for food and a roof over your head." He can't in good conscience leave 42 homeless in the streets. End of story. So the cops it is, cause he can't handle 42. This is what happens when homeless kids hang out with heroes, they want to do the 'right thing'. "So come on, and I'll introduce you, so you can get really smart and live on your own." And Grant moves a hand to 42’s upper back to guide him. Unfortunately, 42 doesn’t seem entirely keen on the idea. As they exit the building, he quickly shakes his head, frowning, and starts to quickly walk away. If Grant gives chase, he runs...and after he turns into an alley, he’s quickly nowhere to be found. Category:Logs